1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to database search engines, more particularly, to a search engine and associated database for searching for locations by distance and direction from a specified location.
2. The Prior Art
There are many situations where a person wants to find a geographic location relative to another. For example, a person may need to find a child care center within 2 miles of her home, or new office space within 5 miles of the downtown district of a city. Databases and programs for searching databases to find real properties are known and programs to find geographic locations are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,989, issued to Tornetta, discloses a database of properties for sale, rent, and lease and a means for viewing the information in the database in graphical form based on distance from a central location. It does not allow the user to select specific minimum and maximum ranges for distances from the central location, nor does it allow the user to narrow the search based upon direction.